2014 NFL Draft officially moved to May

The 2014 NFL Draft officially has a date: May 8-10, 2014. The NFL announced on Tuesday that the draft will take place in May, confirming speculation from last week that it wouldn't be held in April. The official reason for the change is a scheduling conflict at Radio City Music Hall, but plenty of people think this could be a test run for a permanent shift to the month of May.

It turns out that the date of the draft is the only change to the offseason calendar for 2014. The NFL left its other events alone:

• NFL Combine: Feb. 18-25, 2014
• New league year/start of free agency: March 11, 2014
• NFL meetings in Orlando, FL: March 23-26, 2014

Essentially, the only change for 2014 is that the draft will be held two weeks later than usual. This means you will be treated to two more weeks of mock drafts, players will have to wait two more weeks to find out where they are playing and teams will have two more weeks to prepare for the event.

It's unclear right now how this change will affect the OTA/minicamp schedule. I suppose it may not make any difference for the veterans, but it could result in the rookies going right from their minicamp to taking part in OTAs with the rest of the team. For the coaches, this could make things a bit more hectic until everybody gets some time off before training camp, but that aspect of the offseason is still to be determined at this point.